Sanitary shield for telephone apparatus.



F. GGERTZ.

SANITARY SHIELD FOR TELEPHONE APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED OCT.25.19I6.

Patented Oat. 30, 1917.

INVETOR; Frans FREDERICK GOERTZ, 0F

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO AUGUST GOEBTZ & CO.,

A CORPORATION 0F NEW JERSEY.

SANITARY SHIELD FOR TELEPHONE APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Uct. 30, 1917.

Application led October 25, 1916. Serial No. 127,536.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK GOERTZ, a citizen of the United States,residing at Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Sanitary Shields forTelephone Apparatus; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full,clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesaine, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and tocharacters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of thisspecification.

The present invention relates, generally, to a sanitary device orattachment in the form of a shield, which, when not in use, may becarried by an individual, but when to be used is readily attached by himin removable relation over the speaking-opening of the transmitter of atelephone, and may also, if desired, be detachably arranged over thesound-opening of the receiver of the telephone.

The present invention, therefore, has -for its main purpose or object,the provision of a sanitary means, in form of a shield, or cover,adapted to be detachably mounted over the speaking-opening of thetransmitter, or the sound-opening of the receiver of a telephone, with aview of providinga sanitary device which can be used at will by theperson telephoning, is readily removable by such person, afterihavingtelevphoned, and is carried away by such person for future use inconnection with another telephone-apparatus.

TWith these main ends in view, the invention has for its further objectto provide a sanitary shield or cover which has many advantages, and isespecially adapted for use with public telephones, so that a persondesiring to use such public telephone need not hesitate for fear ofcontagion Adue to unsanitary conditions of the telephoneapparatus. I

With the various objects of this invention in view, the said inventionconsists, primarily, in the novel sanitary shield or coverattachment fortelephone-apparatus, such as hereinafter more fully set forth and thenfinally embodied in the clauses of the claim which are appended to andwhich form an The invention is clearly illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings, in which Figure l is a front elevation of atelephone-apparatus showing in connection therewith, and also in frontelevation, a saintary shield or cover slipped over the rim of thetransmitter, and illustrating 'one embodiment of the principles of thepresent invention, and Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the telephonetransmitter and sanitary shield attached or mounted in front of thespeaking-opening of the transmitter.

Fig. 8 is a rear View of the sanitary shield or cover, detached from thetelephone-apparatus, and Fig. 4 is a transverse vertical section of thesame, said section being taken on line 4 4 in said Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a similar section of a slightly modified construction ofsanitary shieldI or cover, but still embodying the principal features,of the present invention.

Similar characters of reference are employed in the above describedviews, to indicate corresponding parts.

Referring now to the said figures of the drawings, thereference-character l designates any usual form of telephone, in thepresent case a telephone-stand, the base of which is indicated by thereference-character 2. The reference-character 3 indicates the usualtelephone-transmitter, 4, the pivoted circuit-cut-out lever, and 5 thetelephone-receiver supported upon said lever.

The sanitary shield or cover is adapted l for use in connection with anytelephoneapparatus, as has been heretofore stated, and the sameconsists, essentially, of a faceplate, as 6, usually of metal, which isprovided-with an opening, as 7.' Upon its upper marginal portion 8, thesaid face-plate 6 is usually made arc-shape, being a semicircle, whichconforms to the general contour of the marginal edge of the transmitter3 or the receiver 5. The lower portion of the said face-plate 6 extendsdownwardly, substantially as shown at 9 in Figs. l, 4 and 5, to therebyprovide an aproneifect for readily slipping or arranging the device infront of the transmitter or receiver, as will be resently more fullydescribed. Surroun ling the curved, portion 8 and the straight marginalportions 10 and 11 of the said face-plate is a rearwardly eX- tendingflange-like member 12 formed with t5 essential part of the followingspecification. a slightly curved and inwardly extending retainingedge-member 13, providingla suitable retaining means for retaining t esanitary shield in its mounted position upon the marginal edge-portionsof the transmitter or receiver, when the device is slipped into itsmountedV relation over the speakingopening of the transmitter or thesoun opening of the receiver, as will be clearly evident.

Fitted upon the inner face of the said face-plate, and conforming to thegeneral marginal contour of the latter, is a disk or plate, as 111, of athin and suitable material, a thin sheet of Celluloid being practicalforthe purposes of my present invention, the said disk or plate beingpreferably provided with any number of suitably disposed small holes orperforations, as 15. yl.`he perforated portion of the said disk orplate, as shown in the several figures of the drawings, eX- tendsdirectly across the back of the opening 7 in the said face-plate 6, soas, except for the perforation 15, tov provide a closure for saidopening 7, and still not interfere with the conveying of the vibratorysound-waves to the transmitter or from the receiver.

Back of the said disk or plate 141 is a suitable fabric, as 16, or othersuitablel arrangement cf matter, treated with a disinfectant orgerm-destroying material, the said elements 14; and 16 being retained inposition against the back of the said plate 6 by means of thepreviously-mentioned dangelike member of the plate 6 and one or moreclamping lugs, as 17, extending from the marginal edge of the said plateand bent over upon the back of the element 16, substantially in themanner shown in Fig. of the drawings.

In some cases an additional backing, as 18, which may be provided withholes or perforations, as 19, may be arranged upon the rear face of thefabric or other disinfe'cting element 16, as clearly illustrated in Fig.5 of the drawings, the various elements being suitably secured upon therear face surface of the said face-plate 6, in substantially the samemanner as indicated in the construction illustrated in Figs. 3 and i ofthe drawings.

As shown, the shield may be of greater width at its lower portion thanat its upper portion, thereby permitting the shield to be more readilyslipped into its position upon the transmitter 4f or upon the receiver5.

rlhis wider arrangement of the shield at the` lower end thereof is alsoessential in that it permits of the use of the shield with differentsizes of transmitters or receivers nacen?? somewhat in diameter.

ltroni the foregoing description of my present invention ,it will beclearly seen, that l have provided a simply constructed attachment fortelephone-apparatus, which is of such size and weight that it can bereadily carried in the pocket without inconvenience, and when it isdesired to use a telephone, may be quickly placed over the'transmitter,(and an additional device may be placed over the receiver,) thussafeguarding the person using the telephone against coming in contactwith parts of the telephone that may be unsanitary or germ-carrying, thedanger from such unclean surfaces being more especially prevalent inpublic telephones.

' l claim 1. A. sanitary shield for telephone-apparatus comprising aface-plate formed with an opening, said face-plate formed at its up peredge with a supporting-means conforming to part of the marginaledge-portion of the telephone-transmitter, and at its lower edge-portionhaving an unobstructed apronlike part extending beneath the lowerportion of the transmitter when in position thereon and being of greaterwidth at its lower portion than at its 'upper portion, a germ-preventingand destroying element connected with said face-plate.

2. A sanitary shield for telephone-apparatus comprising a faceplateformed with an opening, said face-plate formed at its upper edge with asupporting-means conforming to part of the marginal edge-portion of thetelephone-transmitter, and at its lower edge* portion having anunobstructed apron-like partextending beneath the lower portion of thetransmitter when in position thereon and being of greater width at itslower portion than at its upper portion, a germ-preventing anddestroying element connected with said face-plate for detachablyattaching said face-plate, said supporting means consisting of arearwardly and inwardly extending flange-like element extendin along aportion of the marginal edge o the said faceplate, and adapted to bebrought into sliding engagement with a. portion of the marginal edge ofthe transmitter.

ln testimony, that l claim the invention set forth above l have hereuntoset my hand this 20th day of October, 1916.

FREDERICK GOERTZ.

Witnesses:

' Fanart. C. FRAnNrznn,

FREDK. H. W. FRAENTZEL.

